1969 was a good year for popular music and this production of Don’s Party,
which is set on the night of the 1969 Federal election, opens with some
of the songs that could have been played at the party: Obla Di Obla Da by the Beatles, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison and You Really Got Me by the Kinks. With a Playhouse audience comprised mainly of
babyboomers, you would think everyone would be up and dancing, but the
reaction to the whole experience was warm and amused, rather than
excited or challenged.

The actors did everything to involve the
audience, from starting the play with the lights up while the party
preparations were underway to putting in a swag of superb performances,
but something did not gel. The play has certainly dated to some extent
and has become a drawing-room drama, albeit in Australian suburbia,
where the initially shocking issues of promiscuity, wife-swapping and
lesbianism now seem rather tame, but that is not the only problem.

It is over 30 years since the first performance of Don’s Party. David Williamson’s writing changed radically in those 30 years and became minimalist in
the 1990s, with short punchy scenes following hard on each other. The
structure of Don’s Party is looser, with no defined scenes,
rather a handful of mini-plots that converge in the mayhem of a party
where most of the participants are getting increasingly drunk. There
are a number of climaxes and revelations, but the action leading up to
these is slow and naturalistic, with banal party conversation setting
the pace. And it is the pace that flags at times in this production.

Director Peter Evans has encouraged the actors to put as much skill into reacting to the
dialogue as into delivering their own lines. This chain reaction effect
gives us plenty to enjoy onstage but rather slows down the pace. In
spite of the disappointing flat spots, the performances were
outstanding and the tricky business of the characters being onstage
most of the time was well handled. Travis McMahon played an endearing Mack and shone in his most drunken moments. Glenn Hazeldine had perfect comic timing and a riveting stage presence as the accountant Simon. Mandy McElhinney gave us a lovely portrait of a frustrated and angry 60s housewife. The most believable of all was Alison White as Jenny,
who spent much of her time sitting brooding in a corner with a
migraine, but who added the right degree of realism and drama to a play
peopled with caricatures.

Set designer Dale Ferguson use
an open-plan house set, complete with 60s paraphernalia - orange and
green vinyl kitchen chairs, Tupperware, coloured paper lampshades and a
radiogram. It is cluttered, tacky and designed for comic effect. The
partygoers drift from kitchen to hall to lounge room, staying in
character as they hang in the background and make their entrances into
the main action. Hazeldine’s physical comedy drew one of the biggest laughs of the night on one of his entrances.

The production of Don’s Party shows the play for what it is: an odd mixture of comedy, caricature,
realism and social history, enjoyable and amusing, full of recognisable
Aussie characters and packed with dramatic tension. It may not have the
shock value it had originally, but we can still appreciate the impact
it must have had then.

Maybe in another fifty years, for a
generation that didn’t live through the late 60s and early 70s, the
comedy will take on a new life. For today’s audience, largely made up
of a generation that is nostalgic for those times, the play has a
poignancy that often overrides the comedy. David Williamson is
only too aware of this. In a note that prefaces the programme, he talks
about the broken dreams of those who were married and reaching their
thirties by 1969, and of the tension between lost ideals and the need
for commitment. He writes, “Don’s Party is called a comedy, but there’s a lot of sadness at its core.”

Comments (2)

...

Maybe this is a play for men. Every time a husband in this play called his wife an ugly frustrated bitch or frigid hag (or some such) the men in the audience pissed themselves laughing. Count me in with the women who missed the joke.

If this was a comedy it was grotesque. If it were a scathing comment on the appalling reality of trendy ALP suburban life in Australia in that period, well, it has something going for it I guess.

Cathy , March 23, 2007

...

I hated it.

Thought the set was great, as you say, but found the staging terrible, acting awful and play dated and unfunny. I raised a smile a couple of times only. It creaked along and I nearly fell asleep twice.

Thought Rhys Muldoon was good when he entered, and soon his acting degenerated to the level of the others.

As for the actor playing Don's wife....well, to me, she achieved none of the pathos and loneliness of Jeannie Drynan who was in the original play (and film....and who pretty much played the same character '20 years later' in Muriel's Wedding) . She mainly shouted. I was bewildered that there was no sense of the disappointment at the election outcome.

Jody was neither flat-chested nor winsome enough.

The staging was boring - why were party-goers frozen in darkened tableau as if playing a game of Bridge in the dark if not 'centre stage' ? A party isn't like that! The darkened kitchen - come on! Ever been to a party where the kitchen wasn't the scene of many happenings...there should have been 'business' happening elsewhere. For that I blame the director. Ditto out on the patio - it was like between 'set pieces" (screaming matches) they all retired elsewhere and conducted themselves in hushed tones of decorum!

Colin Lane played Evan like a piece of 4 by 2. Not staraight to me, just wooden - liek Athol Guy on mogadon.

Mac's clothing was all wrong (Suzy's was the best costume). And the pratfall with the door by Simon was badly executed.

I think Williamson may have the reputation for 'capturing Australians in the moment' but that moment has passed and this play should have been put to bed and stayed there....he ain't no Shakespeare conveying universal themes!

Having said that, most of the audience loved it, and laughed uproariously, so it was me who was out of step. I had the feeling many of them were hearing the ideas (that a wife might want some independence of thought) for the first time! They were mostly 60 somethings who weren't at Don's party but still think some of their contemporaries were rather infra dig!